"The feeling of awed wonder that science
can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche
is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that
music and poetry can deliver."

"We are going to die, and that makes us
the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are
never going to be born."

Dawkins reminds us that the possible humans that go unborn outnumber
the 'sands of grain of Arabia'.

"And those unborn ghosts include greater
poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because
of the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds
the set of actual people."

Tell the folks who only have sex to procreate that their progeny is
one in thousands. Don't for the world enjoy life as you go along. The
running theme of "Unweaving the Rainbow" is that each person
has one life, a relatively short life in the overall scheme, and that
life should be enjoyed because it can never be relived. Science has
increased the understanding of the world making it even more awesome
than it was to our early ancestors who simply marveled at the sparkling
stars or shivered with pleasure as they looked into the campfire and
licked the juice of a roasted hare from their fingers.

No supernatural being oversees our conception nor does that fantasy
character guide and shape the events in our lives. We procreate because
we need to just to prevent our species going the way of the passenger
pigeon.

And while we may procreate thoughtlessly, although quite pleasurably,
we can understand the science of fertilization without diminishing the
awe of the resulting birth nine months later.

"What is the use of bringing a baby into
the world if the only thing it does with its life is just work to go on
living? If everything is judged by how 'useful' it is -- useful for staying
alive, that is -- we are left facing a futile circularity. There must
be some added value. At least a part of life should be devoted to living
that life, not just working to stop it ending. This is how we rightly
justify spending taxpayer's money on the arts. It is one of the justifications
properly offered for conserving rare species and beautiful buildings.
It is how we answer those barbarians who think that wild elephants and
historic houses should be preserved only if they 'pay their way'. And
science is the same. Of course science pays its way; of course it is useful.
But that is not all it is.

Dawkins considers the impulses to awe, reverence and wonder that lead
mystics to paranormal superstition as precisely the impulses that lead
others to science. He makes many connections from science to poetry
throughout the book.

"Scientists transform the way we think about
the larger universe. They assist the imagination back to the hot birth
of time and forward to the eternal cold, or, in Keat's words, to
spring direct towards the galaxy."

Scientists value reaching the truth above
winning the case in all deliberations. Dawkins suggests that training
of decision-makers in the scientific ways of thinking would help any
committee in assembling facts and reaching conclusions.

We carry over our childhood naivety of believing
what we are told. But as adults the trusting credulity allows us to
be hoodwinked by faery fancy. Sometimes fortunes are lost by accepting
scams presented in clever ways. Growing up should include the cultivation
of healthy skeptism.

Dawkins compares brain functions to computer actions. In our dreams,
our simulation software sets up conditions that do not exist, probably
never could exist. He says: "remember that all our heads contain
powerful and ultra-realistic simulations software." Such software
could bring up a ghost or dragon or saintly virgin in no time flat.

"For completeness we must note that the
brain itself, and its virtual reality software, are ultimately the products
of natural selection of ancestral genes."

Chapter titles like Barcodes in the Stars, Hoodwink'd with Faery
Fancy, and the Genetic Book of the Dead enticed me continue
reading.

What scientists have discovered
increases my appetite for wonder. It could do the same for you.